Category: social networking

The power of social networking

I went out for drink the other night with someone I’d never met before. With the consent of my other half, I might add.

This person was someone I’ve got to know online, not through a dodgy chatroom, but through similar interests on a social networking website, in this case last.fm.

For me, it just highlights the power of the internet and how you no longer have to venture out on a cold dark night to a smelly village hall, or upstairs room in a pub to meet people who potentially have like-minded interests and you might get on with.

Clearly, there’s no replacement for the enjoyment of meeting friends in a bar and chatting about stuff, but if you don’t know people who share your interest in underwater basket-weaving, there are bound to be people online who do and they may not live in the same country, but you can swap tips and stories.

I must confess that my night out was a bit nerve-wracking. Neither of us were 100% sure what the other looked like and given that we’d never physically spoken, we weren’t actually sure that we’d get on once we sat opposite each other with a pint in our hands.

We needn’t have worried. A cracking night was had and there will hopefully be many more. More power to Web 2.0!

Mysterious vowel movement – bacn

The grammar police have been called following the mysterious disappearance of the letter ‘o’ in a new Web 2.0 definition.

Over the weekend, the word ‘bacn‘ appeared in various emails and feeds. Used by the so-called netheads, it describes “low-priority” e-mail that is not important enough to reply to immediately, but is not spam – examples include Facebook notifications.

The Web 2.0 authorities are looking into this new vowel movement, as there is mounting concern that soon all the ‘a’s ‘i’s and ‘u’s will also disappear.

Early start-ups such as Flickr were blase about dispensing with the ‘e’ and this has become a common deletion, but this new dropping of the ‘o’ has provoked widespread condemnation.

Reports that the term ‘ssg’ being introduced to describe a mish-mash of different Web 2.0  products are unconfirmed!